James Hershberg - Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam

COLD WAR

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JAMES G. HERSHBERG

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2012 by James G. Hershberg

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hershberg, James G. (James Gordon), 1960

Mairgold : the lost chance for peace in Vietnam / James G. Hershberg.

p. cm. (Cold War International History Project series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Vietnam War, 19611975Peace. 2. Vietnam War, 19611975Diplomatic history. 3. United StatesForeign relations19631969. I. Title. II. Series: Cold War International History Project series. DS559.7.H48 2011

959.704'31dc23

2011034990

E-book ISBN: 978-0-8047-8388-0

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The Cold War International History Project was established by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1991. The project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War and seeks to disseminate new information and perspectives on Cold War history emerging from previously inaccessible sources on the other sidethe former Communist worldthrough publications, fellowships, and scholarly meetings and conferences. The project publishes the Cold War International History Project Bulletin and a working paper series and maintains a Web site at www.cwihp.org.

At the Woodrow Wilson Center, the project is part of the History and Public Policy Program, directed by Christian F. Ostermann. Previous directors include David Wolff (199798) and James G. Hershberg (199197). The project is overseen by an advisory committee chaired by William Taubman, Amherst College, and includes Michael Beschloss; James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; Warren I. Cohen, University of Maryland at Baltimore; John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University; James G. Hershberg, George Washington University; Samuel F. Wells Jr., Woodrow Wilson Center; and Sharon Wolchik, George Washington University.

The Cold War International History Project has been supported by the Korea Foundation, Seoul; the Leon Levy Foundation, New York; the Henry Luce Foundation, New York; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago; and the Smith Richardson Foundation, Westport, Conn.

For Annie, Gabriel, and Vera Hershberg

and for my parents, Arline and David Hershberg

Warsaw, December 6, 1966: a date that should live in diplomatic infamy. Five thousand miles away, the Vietnam War is raging, with the dead piling up and the escalating violence poisoning international affairs and American politics. Early that morning, the Pentagon informs President Lyndon B. Johnson at his Texas ranch that 6,250 U.S. military personnel have been killed in Vietnam (and Laos) since January 1961, when his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, took officebut few imagine that 52,000 more Americans are still to die, along with millions of Vietnamese on both sides of the 17th Parallel. Outwardly, the bloodshed shows no sign of subsiding.

Yet, far from Southeast Asias jungles and rice paddies, in this gray, frigid Central European city, a secret breakthrough for peace seems imminent. The United States and North Vietnam lack diplomatic relations and, relying on combat to resolve their clashing visions, appear stuck in a Catch-22 that precludes direct negotiations: Hanoi insists that it will not talk until Washington stops the bombing it began in early 1965, and Washington maintains just as stubbornly that it will not halt the raids until assured that Hanoi will pay a reasonable price, such as curbing its support for the Communist insurgency fighting to topple the U.S.backed regime in Saigon.